Thursday, April 19, 2012

Pondering the Past, the Present and the Future

Tomorrow my grandma turns 90.

It makes me wonder what the world will be like when I'm 90. I will just go ahead and tell you that this will happen in the year 2055. I wonder if I'll still be around? If I inherited much my grandma and grandpa's genes (my grandpa is nearly 92) perhaps I actually will.

And when I think about what's happened to the world in their lifetimes, and what's happened in my lifetime so far, it truly freaks me out as to how different things will be in 2055. Can you even imagine?

Think about how different things are today than in the 20s. Cars. Computers. Medicine. Airplanes. And then how different they are now from the 60s! Computers in our pockets! Chatting with the world.

What WILL it be like in 2055 do you think? Will we actually have the internet in our heads? Will we wear it around on our face, instead of in our pockets? Will "beam me up" ever be invented? Or hover boards? Or autopiloted cars? Or those wands that diagnose sickness with a sweeping wave over your body?

Or will we be living in a dystopian novel by then? Divided into districts... or factions... or living loveless, with our choices and memories gone? We will be all killed off by some sort of plague, or will we have regressed to living a version of the past?

Which makes me wonder... does my grandma think our world NOW is dystopian-like? Actually, she was quite fond of the computer and all it could do, and lamented the day that she decided she could no longer see to manipulate the thing. (Which gives me the vision of me at 90, trying to blog still! I bet I could just speak my posts and thought then, and the computer will interpret!)

Well, whatever it's like, hopefully I'm around to see it! I think. Assuming it's a good thing.

What do you think life will be like in 2055? Do you think the changes will be good, or bad, or a little of both? Do you want to be here to see the future? And to make this more bookish, what futuristic book would you NOT mind our future actually turning out like?

11 comments:

Oh my! I wonder about this all the time and it makes me a little nervous. I think I'd rather not be around if things get even more tyrannical but I would like to see how technology advances. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Jessica: I hope to be a hip grandma too. Not sure what that really means. But I know I'll still be wanting to go to rock concerts forever, even when I'm a grandma which is only a few years away I'm afraid! :)

Interestingly, I was just talking to my 12 year old about this very thing...the year that I will turn 90. She thought it was quite humorous to think of me as 90. As far as what it will be like...well, she and I laughed that most likely kids of that year (2059) will probably laugh at the things we think are so advanced now.

I do not give it much thought - how things will be - because I was very wrong as a young kid....I thought there would be now way our world would still be around in the year 2000...do remember I was a kid in the late 70s to very super early 80s with this thought.

Oh the horrors I can imagine. I think I've been reading too much dystopian lately. I think it will be pretty much the same, just more technology and us being more dependent on it. Both good and bad. And I honestly can't think of any books I've read recently that I wouldn't mind being in the future - how sad is that?

Depends. The optimistic me can imagine wonderful medical and technological solutions, such as a cure for cancer and clean and effortless transportation. But then, the pessimistic me can think of so man horrors I really don't want to be around to see. I guess time will tell what happens.

Oh,wow. I don't even know if I can fathom the technology that would be around in 2055. It's amazing how much technology has progressed just in my lifetime. I don't even think I can imagine it. Although, I would like a holodeck to be a real thing. Except, it does break a lot and become dangerous, so maybe I don't want it to be real.

Wow, what a ride. When an invisible barrier suddenly descends on this small town, how will the people handle things? Let's just say... not very well! Would it be giving away too much if I say... pretty much EVERYONE dies! And all written in...